In
the 1968 film Charly, directed by Ralph Nelson, the journey of Charly
Gordon, a middle-aged mentally challenged man can be conceptualized as an
intellectual awakening, and juxtaposed to Plato’s description of the Allegory
of the Cave in The Republic. In The Republic, Plato discredited
leading a life of ignorance, and described the advantageous effects of
education on the human soul. He asserted that only such individuals that attain
knowledge of an invisible, intelligible world are capable of living life to its
fullest. Similarly, in “Charly,” Charly acquired the ability to absorb
knowledge, allowing him to experience his surroundings through a new lens; a
lens that gave him a much fuller picture of the world and all it had to offer.
Although once content with his former lifestyle, Charly later became distressed
by the prospect that his knowledge would fade, and that he would eventually
return to the confines of his prior inferior existence. According to Plato’s
teachings, once Charly had ascended to a higher state of knowledge he could
never completely return to his prior state of being. Charly’s experience serves
to demonstrate Plato’s assertions in his parable of the Allegory of the Cave.
In The Republic, Plato
describes a “strange sort of prisoners” that are chained and bound within the
dark interior of a cave (Plato 229). They face a wall, unable to twist their
heads. Behind them is a series of statues that are manipulated on a moving
track, behind which is a fire that serves to reflect shadows of the statues
upon the wall of which the prisoners face. (Plato 227-28) The prisoners’ entire
perception of reality is that of the scenes they see play out on the wall in
front of them and in their conversations with one another, and they lack a true
and abstract understanding of what they are looking at. (Plato 229) Plato would
view Charly’s original substandard condition both figuratively and literally as
demonstrative of the “strange sort of prisoners” that are locked down within
the cave (Plato 228). Charly was caged
in a world of both mental and emotional isolation and his domicile could be
likened to the cave, with minimal outside influence. Director Ralph Nelson
hones in on this point in the literal sense by portraying Charly’s room, when
he was mentally challenged, as bare; having a simple chalkboard in the center
of his room, absent of any posters or objects that would demonstrate a
meaningful association with others. Later in the film, Charly began to
accumulate knowledge, and at that point his room was shown decorated and filled
with numerous items that would evidence his having broken out of the “cage.”
Not only was Charly isolated within his home from meaningful
human interaction, but his mind was also trapped within his own body. What the
Directors’ imagery served to exemplify was that Charly, when trapped within a
“cage,” had a very superficial understanding of reality; and he found himself
unable to interpret his surroundings in a meaningful way, thus rendering him an
empty, barren person. Charly’s shallow understanding of the world was best
demonstrated in the film when, under scientific observation, Charly failed to
conceptualize a fictitious relationship between two sets of photographs. He was
also publicly chastised, when he misinterpreted his co-workers actions for
friendship when they were in reality ridicule. Here Charly was shown to be
unable to think in an active manner. Plato would consider Charly, when he was
challenged, to have been trapped within the “imagination” stage of knowledge as
his perception of reality was colored by mere reflection and shadow;
experiencing the world the way he saw it experienced by others rather than for
what it actually was (Plato 224).
At the urgency of scientists Charly
went on to receive an experimental cranial operation, which involved the
implantation of tissues into his brain in an attempt to increase his ability to
store knowledge. The operation served to change his physiological makeup and
alter his mental capability. By acting as a catalyst the operation allowed
Charly to subsequently incrementally educate himself. His knowledge afforded
him an awareness that extended throughout the facets of his life. Soon after Charly’s operation he became
cognizant that his relations with his co-workers were not set on a mutually
amicable footing, but rather, that he was being laughed at on the basis of his
retardation. Plato would conceptualize Charly’s operation as having allowed him
to break from his chains within the cave, allowing him to see that what he
previously considered reality was mere “meaningless illusion,” and part of the
process of the “healing of [Charly’s] unwisdom” (Plato 229). He could thus understand the world around him
on its face value rather than relying on mere reciprocity. Here, Charly was
able to see the “actual things of which the first are likenesses, the living
creatures about us and all the works of nature or of human hands,” and had
attained the “belief” stage of knowledge (Plato 224). Still, Charly’s
transformation was not yet complete; he remained trapped within the confines of
the cave, unable to realize that a greater form of knowledge existed beyond his
understanding of events and objects for what they were; knowledge that existed
beyond the cave.
According to Plato, those that were
once prisoners within the cave can be forced up the “steep and rugged ascent”
out of the cave and into the intelligible world by the process of education;
acknowledging that the individual might “suffer pain and vexation” along the
way (Plato 229). Charly was a unique candidate for the experimental operation
because he possessed a relentless motivation to learn, but nonetheless, he
would need “to grow accustomed before he could see things in that upper world”
(Plato 229). After initially being disappointed he began to gain a basic
understanding of the events and objects around him, developing the requisite
self-confidence to challenge his mind with increasingly difficult material. The
scientists observed that Charly was able to attain all of the knowledge
required of an elementary school student within the first five weeks after the
operation, and accomplish high school material within the subsequent three
weeks. Along with increasing the difficulty level of the material, Charly began
to attain the ability to think in a more abstract manner. Here, Plato would see
Charly as having entered the stage of “thought,” perceiving the world on the
basis of passive exposure to the “Forms,” or perfect ideas that are unchanging,
universal and absolute (Plato 224). Charly is able to conceptualize Beauty and
Love as “Forms,” but still relies on sensible particulars to aid in his
reasoning. This was best exemplified by Charly’s paintings that demonstrated
his conceptions of Love and Beauty, and by his use of mathematical and
scientific formulas as aids for which Charly used to understand the ultimate
reality: the Forms.
As Charly continued his unwavering
pursuit of knowledge, he continued to think in a more abstract manner until he
finally was able to understand the Forms, no longer needing to rely on sensible
particulars as crutches for which to attain such knowledge. In Plato’s parable,
once outside of the cave and looking directly into the sun, an individual gains
the ability to understand the “Form of the Good;” the ultimate object of
knowledge, and the one Form that leads to an understanding of all of the other
Forms (Plato 219, 230). This is exemplified in the film when Charly progressed
from displaying an emotionally immature conception of “love,” to the point in
which he was able to internalize his feelings and demonstrate true emotion to
Ms. Kinnian. Such a progression did indeed occur for Charly; but as Plato would
have predicted, he suffered “pain and vexation” along the way (Plato 229).
Plato would have believed that this awakening needed to be a gradual transition
otherwise the individual would be subjected to “confusion,” as when “emerging
from the depths of ignorance, [one] is dazzled by excess of light” (Plato 232).
Charly’s metamorphosis was progressing too quickly for him. He responded to the
stress by retreating from it; escaping to an alternative world both physically
by motorcycle and mentally by assuming a drug induced high. Having been
“confused by a change… from darkness to light,” Charly needed time to catch up
to the accelerated pace of his education. Eventually this came to pass and Charly
grew accustomed to the light; and no longer was the relationship that he shared
with Ms. Kinnian only experienced in the visible world. Charly’s new conception
of Love became an abstract entity; a Form that remained constant no matter what
its particular usage in the visible world entailed. Plato would consider this
to be one part of achieving the ultimate stage of knowledge, or the stage of
“understanding,” where an individual can reason between the Forms without the
use of particulars (Plato 226). Plato believes that “if [an individual] called
to mind his fellow prisoners and what passed for wisdom in his former
dwelling-place, he would surely think himself happy in the change and be sorry
for them” (Plato 230). Charly clearly realized at this point that life is much
better and more complete when one is cognizant of the Forms.
Unfortunately, Charly later became
aware that his condition was not designed to be permanent, and that he would
one day return to his former mental state of retardation. Charly became sorry
not only for his own destiny but also for those like his prior self who could
potentially have benefited from similar scientific advancement, as he had come
to enjoy his life supplemented by knowledge and could not imagine returning to
his inferior existence. This parallels Plato’s assertion that once individuals
gain an understanding of the Forms, they would “endure anything rather than go
back to [their] old beliefs and live in the old way” (Plato 230). Neither Charly nor the philosopher-king of
which Plato was referring to in his parable would personally enjoy returning to
the confines of the cave; but in both instances, “compulsion [is to be brought]
to bear” (Plato 233). Plato would assert that Charly would never entirely
return to his previous state of being, but rather, his eyes would simply “grow
accustomed to the darkness” (Plato 234). According to Plato, “the soul of every
man does possess the power of learning the truth and the organ to see it with,”
but only education can ensure that “instead of looking in the wrong direction,
[ones point of view] is turned the way it ought to be” (Plato 232). Wisdom is
not perceived to be determinate on the amount of ones intelligence, but rather
it is dependent on ones ability to utilize knowledge in a certain abstract
manner. The operation that Charly
endured simply helped to point his thinking in the right direction, and once he
was pointed in such a direction, no physiological change could ever have
stripped Charly of all that he had achieved. Although Charly might have lost
the intelligence that he had attained, according to Plato, he was affected by
it nonetheless, and his newfound wisdom would “never [lose] its power” (Plato
233). In the last scene, Charly is shown swinging “happily.” If one ascribes
Plato’s theories to Charly, his externally portrayal of happiness is without
substance, as internally he will never be the same.
Multiple parallels can be drawn
between Plato’s conception of knowledge in the Allegory of the Cave of The
Republic and the experiences of Charly Gordon in the film Charly,
directed by Ralph Nelson. Both Charly and the philosopher-king were shown to
have experienced an intellectual awakening, allowing them to escape from the
confines of an inferior existence within a metaphorical cave. By ascending to
higher grades of knowledge, they became cognizant of increasingly better lives,
and became unwilling to return to their prior state of existence. After
reaching the ultimate stage of knowledge, both however, were forced to return to
the cave. Plato asserts that neither the philosopher-kings nor the newly
educated Charly would ever go on to experience life in the same light again. In
seeming contradiction, Charlie appears to revert back to his original state of
ignorance happily at the end of the film. Although education is shown to be the
sole path of ensuring the “conversion of the soul,” allowing individuals to
attain a truer understanding of the world around them, it is conceivable that
Plato would have found the uneducatable to be exempt from the burden of the
soul and thus free to live lives of blissful ignorance (Plato 232). Nevertheless,
as exemplified by Plato’s assertions and Charly’s awakening, when education and
motivation combine, the resultant quality of life is one that is truly
unsurpassed.
Works Cited
Charly. Dir. Ralph Nelson. DVD. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., 1968.
Cornford, Francis M. The Republic of Plato.
1st ed. Vol. 1. London: Oxford University Press, 1941. 217-235.
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